Dec. 9—The amount that the Schuylkill Haven Area School District will have to pull from its $6 million general fund to cover a 2022-23 budget deficit is substantially less than what was expected, district officials reported.

"The final general fund loss came in at $333,979, which was a huge decrease from where we had budgeted," Kimberly Umphrey, business manager, said Dec. 7.

The budget approved in May includes a 4.8% tax increase — the state maximum — to balance a deficit mostly caused by an uptick in personnel and pension costs as well as rising cybercharter expenses.

Umphrey said the goal was to aim for no more than a $500,000 loss this school year.

"I feel like we did the best we could to get our numbers down," Umphrey said.

In addition, Umphrey reported the district's state maximum tax increase next year is 5.8%

A maximum tax increase would increase the district's rate by 2.59 mills to 47.08 mills — a $259 tax increase for a property valued at $100,00.

That increase would bring in an additional $417,379 in revenue, Umphrey noted.

Umphrey stressed that she was not making any budget recommendations at this time, and a preliminary budget would be presented later.

In other business, the district discussed a potential agreement with the St. Clair Area School District to hire a new part-time school psychologist to help handle an influx of student evaluations.

"(St. Clair) is definitely 100% on board with working with us," said Kenneth S. Rossi, director of special education.

The plan is the psychologist would be hired as a Schuylkill Haven employee and spend two days per week at Schuylkill Haven and three days at St. Clair.

Rossi said the salary and benefits would be split accordingly, with Schuylkill Haven responsible for 40% of the expenses.

Schuylkill Haven currently employs one full-time psychologist, officials noted.

"We had a really positive interaction with St. Clair," said Dr. Shawn Fitzpatrick, superintendent. "This is a great example of how smaller districts should be working together."

Fitzpatrick noted the district's portion of the psychologist's salary and benefit costs would be covered by funding from the state's School-Based ACCESS Program, which allows school districts to receive reimbursement for medical services.